Wasps Rugby Football Club was a professional rugby union team. They last played in Premiership Rugby, the top division of English rugby, until being suspended on 12 October 2022. On 17 October 2022, the club entered administration, resulting in relegation from the league and all staff being made redundant. They exited administration on 16 December 2022, however, as of 2025, the club is still officially defunct.

Founded in 1867 as Wasps Football Club, from 1923 to 1996 they were based at Repton Avenue in Sudbury, London. From 1996 to 2002 the team played at Loftus Road in Shepherd's Bush, London and from 2002 to 2014 they played at Adams Park in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire. From 2014 to 2022 their home ground was the Coventry Building Society Arena (known until 2021 as the Ricoh Arena) in Coventry.

Wasps won 12 major titles. They were European Champions twice, in 2004 and 2007; won six English Championships including three in a row from 2003 to 2005; and won three Anglo-Welsh Cups. They also won the 2003 European Rugby Challenge Cup. Wasps most recent trophy was the 2007–08 Premiership.

In 2021–22 Premiership Rugby, their last completed season, Wasps finished 9th. Lee Blackett was appointed head coach in February 2020, until being made redundant.

In October 2023, the owners of the club announced plans to revive the team in a permanent home in Kent, while maintaining the possibility of playing from Sixways Stadium in Worcester pending completion of any new build. The club stated that it hoped to be involved in the relaunch of the professional game in England from 2025.

Hampstead Football Club was founded in 1866. A split in the membership resulted in the formation of two different clubs: Harlequin F.C. and Wasps. Wasps Football Club was itself formed in 1867 at the now defunct Eton and Middlesex Tavern in North London; names of insects, birds and other animals were considered fashionable in the Victorian period. In December 1870, Edwin Ash, Secretary of Richmond Football Club published a letter in the papers which said, "Those who play the rugby-type game should meet to form a code of practice as various clubs play to rules which differ from others, which makes the game difficult to play."

As a reasonably well-established club, the Wasps were eligible to be founder members of the Rugby Football Union (RFU). On 26 January 1871 the meeting was scheduled to take place. However a mix-up led to them sending their representative to the wrong venue at the wrong time on the wrong day. Another version of the story was that he went to a pub of the same name and after consuming a number of drinks was too drunk to make it to the correct address after he realised his mistake. Wasps were, therefore, not present at the inauguration ceremony and thus forfeited their right to be called foundation members.

Wasps' first home was in Finchley Road, North London. Later, grounds were rented in various parts of London until in 1923 the Wasps found a permanent home at Sudbury, Middlesex, eventually buying the ground outright. The side had somewhat of a renaissance during the 1930s; in the earlier part of the decade they were seen as one of the better English clubs, going unbeaten in the 1930/31 English season. The 1930s also saw the emergence of Neville Compton, who captained the side between 1939 and 1947 and went on to become fixture secretary in 1959 and eventually became the club president in the early 1970s before retiring in 1988.